Notes and Editorial Reviews

This enchanting work—full of humour, pathos and fantasy, and one of the most marvellously inventive orchestral scores that even Ravel ever wrote—emerges as sparkling as ever from a recording that was hailed as superlative when it was first issued and now arouses not the smallest suspicion that the date of that issue was 28 years ago. So often, even in the best opera recordings, there has to be a reservation over some detail or some less than perfect casting; but this is one of those flawless productions entitled to a permanent place among the classics of the catalogue. It would be invidious to single out any members of the cast: the petulant brat who is the central figure, the two amorous cats, the despairing princess, the manically exigentRead more Mr Arithmetic, the foxtrotting Chinese teapot and cup, the leaping flames of the fire—all these, and more, are vividly portrayed, with backing from an excellent children's choir and an orchestra every strand of whose texture is admirably reproduced. The final pages, in which the tormented animals and objects rally round the now chastened child, are truly touching. Lorin Maazel conducts as if he loved every note of the score—as well he might.